This is a blog about my adventures as a Chicana in the Kitchen and how one incorporates their culture into their food no matter where they are. My mama used to make us hot dogs in tortillas and that to me is the quintessential Chicana Kitchen.

July 13, 2009

Buttermilk Oatmeal Pancakes

I got this recipe from my wonderful hairdresser K who got it out of a Cooking Light magazine - I think this is where it's from, sorry I don't have the exact reference but I'm pretty sure this is where it came from. It's delicious and nutritious for two pancakes it's 160 calories with 5 grams of fat. I've doubled the batch which usually yields about 16 pancakes. Keep in mind you do need to soak your oats overnight in the buttermilk, so if you're going to make these delicious treasures you need to plan in advance.

Add two cups of oats to two and a half cups of buttermilk. Then you put this into the fridge to marinate overnight.

It will look like this before you put it in the fridge overnight. A note about these pancakes -they are absolutely divine. You know it must be true because in general I HATE pancakes, yet I crave these. My hate-affair with pancakes began when I was about 10 years old. My family had moved to the beautiful island of Kawaii for the summer for my dad's work and he had promised to take my brother on a deep-sea fishing trip. I should say that this might have been my first feminist moment, I loudly protested that it wasn't fair that my brother got to go deep-sea fishing and I didn't. So, the morning of the expedition we rose early and were treated to some buttermilk pancakes from the box, you know the kind. I gobbled them down with my stomach turning from being up so early and for my first trip on the open sea. I don't remember much of the trip because I was in a sea sick haze, I did see dolphins, which was awesome because at the time I wanted to be a marine biologist. But the point of this story is that I tossed my pancakes right overboard. And ever since then well, pancakes have never been the same, let's just keep it at that.

These pancakes however, will never be tossed. After they've soaked overnight the batter is a lot thicker. See exhibit A above.

Mix all of your ingredients together and you are ready to make some delicious pancakes.

This was my first experience with my Broil King griddle - I must say, it sure beats making pancakes two at a time on a skillet on the stove, when you flip them they don't flip and then they're a crumpled mess - well with the Broil King there are no worries of that happening unless you're totally inept and you try to flip your pancakes too soon.

Kind of like here. I didn't flip toooooo soon, but I could've left them on their back side just a wee bit longer. The normal procedure with pancakes is to flip when there are no more bubbles in the batter. With the Broil King however I noticed that it was time to flip when the outer edges of the batter on top began to brown, it was quite helpful to notice this small change in your pancake! Flipping on the royal Broil King was a dream come true.

This was my first set (clearly they're a bit misshapen - but I cut off the bits around their edges with my spatula and those were sent to my kitchen assistant for tasting.

I think she likes them.

I tried to capture the browning around the edges of the pancakes in this photo, not sure you can see it, but the batter changes colors around the outside and makes for a good indication for proper flippage.

I got kind of confident for round two when I decided I would put up six pancakes at once. Yes, six pancakes at once! This was pretty much a dream come true!

Look at what beautiful pancakes I've made, see this is why if you don't really like pancakes this will draw you in and make you crave them! They're soft and chewy and a little sweet from the honey and delectably cinnamony.

They were so good that Kitchen Assistant #2 (JoJo) thought maybe she would come and check out what was going on in the kitchen. Kitchen Assistant #1 (Sandie) took some issue with this - she did end up getting pancake bits between each batch. Who can blame her?

My finished product. I decided to let them cool on a rack because A was still asleep when I made these early on Sunday morning, you can't see the time on the oven but it was 8:30am or so. She was asleep and I didn't want them to get soggy. Again, I often make 16 because I'll have two when they're hot with some delicious maple syrup and then refrigerate the others and have them as tasty snacks later. A little peanut butter on top is a major power booster, I'll eat one in the mornings before going to the gym and it will give me amazing energy then I'll have another one when I get home to make it until lunch. They're really filling even though they aren't very many calories, they're thick and chewy and you won't be disappointed. I promise you won't want to toss these bad boys!

About Me

I am a Nuevo Mexican Chicana lesbian currently living in the Midwest. I love red and green chile, pb&j on tortillas, the color red and quick and easy meals for a (self-acknowledged) picky eater - my partner of five years.